Apple issues details of data requests from security agencies

Apple is the latest tech firm to publish details of data requests from security agencies in the United States.

The company said it received requests for information linked to between 9000 - 10,000 accounts or devices between December and the end of May.

It said the demands included "national security matters" among other information.

Microsoft and Facebook published similar numbers last week.

But Google and Twitter said on Saturday that such disclosures are not helpful.

Tech firms have been under pressure to disclose information about data passed to the National Security Agency since The Guardian and The Washington Post revealed the existence of Prism - a programme giving the NSA access to user data held on the servers of tech firms including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, and Apple.

The NSA later confirmed the existence of the surveillance scheme as well as a separate phone records programme which it said had helped it thwart terrorist plots in the United States and more than 20 other countries.